Wallet Moths

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When a character is poor, there's no better way for him to say "I have no money" (due to Perpetual Poverty or a Broke Episode) than to have moths emerge from his wallet when he opens it. It's also the perfect way to show that a character with tons of money at his disposal is a complete skinflint. Alternately, the character can make a great show of pulling the pockets of his pants inside out (an act that might also be accompanied by the appearance of moths). Double points if the character does both.

Examples:

Happens in an Ivy The Terrible comic strip in The Beano (with Ivy's dad pulling at his pockets).

The Beano used it pretty much any time any character took out a wallet or otherwise searched for money. Unless their gimmick was being incredibly rich, of course; sometimes in this case moths would fly out wearing tiny top hats or carrying diamond rings.

Disney Ducks Comic Universe: This was pretty much guaranteed to happen to Scrooge McDuck whenever he opens his wallet or change purse. Meant to indicate that because he is a miser, he opens his wallet very seldom.

Gwenpool referenced the trope when telling MODOK why she absolute needs the next mercenary job.

Gwen: I tried to check my bank balance online, and instead it run moth-escape.gif.

Comic Strips

In Calvin and Hobbes, it happened once when Calvin's dad was paying Rosalyn's baby-sitting bonus and there was nothing left.

Lampshaded in a Liō strip, where Lio's dad is shown with a package of "Wallet Moths" used to trick Lio into thinking he's broke.

Films — Animation

The Triplets of Belleville: Mme Souza, while trying to order a hamburger, opens her purse, only for a moth to fly out of it. When it lands on the smiling cashier's face, the cashier realizes that her customer has no money.

Scary Godmother: When Harry the werewolf orders a few dozen pizzas to the Halloween party, Scary Godmother (understandably) looks at him expectantly. This is all they find, much to SG's annoyance.

The opening of The Thief and the Cobbler has the Thief opening woefully poor Tack's wallet in his sleep, only for a few moths to fly out.

Films — Live-Action

It occurs during the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment of Fantasia 2000, to the man in the diner.

In The Mask, the title character has a moth fly out of his pocket to show how poor he is.

In the The Three Stooges short "From Nurse to Worse", Moe and Larry pry open Curly's money purse (that he keeps around his neck, hidden beneath layers of shirts), and moths fly out. Inside is a single moth-eaten dollar bill.

Literature

Used as a plot point in the children's book McBroom Tells the Truth by Sid Fleischman: Josh McBroom buys a seemingly worthless farm for everything in his wallet, and when it turns out to be valuable land, the swindler who sold the land demands it back, saying that McBroom still owes him the moths that flew out when he handed over the money.

Live-Action TV

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has Tituss at the ATM. His balance is $2, which he opts to withdraw. The fee is $3. He accepts, and instead of getting his money, a receipt comes out informing him his new balance is negative one dollar.

Puppet Shows

In one episode of The Muppet Show, when Kermit checks the theatre's cashbox, he comments, "Three moths and a washer... More than we usually have."

Video Games

In the VGA Quest for Glory I, if you look at your money pouch when it's empty, you may randomly get this message:

In the Mellow Brick Road music video by Pogo, the Scarecrow indicates his lack of brains by pulling off his hat and having a moth fly out. Not quite this trope, but clearly drawing upon the same imagery to indicate "empty."

An episode of Woodworking for Mere Mortals starts with a skit made to look and sound like a silent film. A boy walks down a road and fails to find any money in his pocket. It being a silent film, we get a closeup of him pulling his pocket inside out to indicate this in lieu of any dialog. See it here.

Western Animation

In DuckTales, it's seen to happen in "Duckworth's Revolt". Duckworth relates his duties of the day to Huey, Dewey and Louie, noting that he was due to dust off Scrooge's credit cards. Duckworth holds up Scrooge's wallet, and the viewer can see several moths fluttering out.

Community

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